Earlier this month, Microsoft proudly announced it had brought *nix end-of-line support to Notepad, more than a decade after it was first requested. The excitement from developers seems to have been quite palpable, as Microsoft has returned to the subject of Notepad in its latest MSDN blog.

In the blog, Microsoft reveals that Notepad is one of the most common test cases for apps and Windows...

Arm is best known for its mobile CPU and GPU processors, but the company is keen to also show its expertise in more emerging fields. This week, Arm unveiled its new Project Trillium machine learning processor (MLP), three months after first revealing its existence.

The MLP exists to allow smartphones and tablets to perform machine learning independently, without needing to connect to a server somewhere. While a smartphone has limited performance, there are many advantages to this approach: less bandwidth and...

Bad news, everyone. If you thought we were out of the woods when it comes to the Meltdown / Spectre CPU security flaws, then think again. Researchers from Microsoft and Google have identified a previously unknown fourth variant of the processor design issues that made front page news when they were discovered last year.

Like its predecessors, variant 4 (or CVE-2018-3639, to give its full name) describes a processor design issue that could allow malicious software to discover hidden information, such as a...

Beijing-based company Egret Technology is planning to combine two of the most important modern technologies, HTML5 and blockchain, in a project called Egretia. The idea behind Egretia is solving some technical issues in the HTML5 game industry—such as multiplayer matchmaking, digital item marketplaces, data storage, advertising and crowdfunding—using blockchain.

Egret is already well-known in the HTML5 community due to its work on HTML5 development tools, including an engine, IDE and...

Lego took to the New York City Toy Fair this week to announce its new line of connected toys. They're called Powered Up, and they stride the line between traditional sets and programming-oriented brands like Boost and Mindstorms. The idea is to make sets that are fun out of the box, with nothing but building required, but to add in smarter elements for kids to take the toys further, like remote controls and programming.

The lead set is the Batman App-Controlled Batmobile, a remote controlled car driven...

After more than three years of development, AsteroidOS has finally reached the version 1.0 milestone. This open source smartwatch OS is designed to offer Android Wear owners an alternative, especially for older watch models that have stopped receiving Wear OS updates.

The first stable release of AsteroidOS includes what its creators call 'all the features needed for a modern wearable experience'. That includes core watch apps like alarms, timers and weather, plus...

If you rely on encrypted email via PGP or S/MIME, you may want to temporarily switch to a new form of communication, as serious issues have been found with how these standards are implemented in many popular email programs on Windows, Linux, macOS and Android.

Swiss developer Daniel Stefanovic has created an impressive resource for developers, called Build Your Own X. This GitHub repository is a carefully vetted list of tutorials, designed to help you actually understand a topic by building a simple - yet functional - implementation.

The idea

For example, if you wanted to know more about how blockchain or cryptocurrencies work, you could create your own in an afternoon. Going through that process means that you can't just fake understanding; you're pushed...

Last week, we covered the exciting news that Google had added Linux app support to Chrome OS, allowing apps like Android Studio to run on Chromebooks. Now we're looking at things from another angle, as Google have added a Chrome OS emulator to Android Studio.

That means developers can now test how Android apps will run on Chrome OS, without needing to have physical access to a Chromebook themselves.

It’s been a lively week in Redmond, WA at the annual Microsoft Build conference, where the world’s brightest developer talent has been exploring the future of cloud, blockchain, artificial intelligence and other innovations that make it an exciting time to be a developer. But, I’d like to call your attention to another, lesser known issue where developers have an opportunity to add significant value for their organizations: Universal Acceptance (UA).

This week Apple has started outright removing iOS apps that don't comply with their location privacy standards. After tacitly permitting these apps for months, Apple has begun delisting leaky iOS apps and sending emails to app developers who have fallen afoul of the rules.

The move comes just two weeks before the EU-wide General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force, although it's not clear whether Apple is moving in response to the new rules or merely tackling a new category of...

In March, the first major update to the Vulkan cross-platform GPU API was released, and as of this week, Google have confirmed version 1.1 will be supported by Android P. Here's what you need to know about Vulkan 1.1 for Android development.

First of all, there are several features here are big news for the update as a whole, but aren't likely to be relevant to Android P devices. Multiple GPU support is perhaps the headline feature in this category, as it requires two or more discrete graphics cards...

While Google's Android OS has become a giant in the smartphone industry, it's failed to catch on in other form factors. Android TV is one case in point; announced in 2014, the OS for TVs and set top boxes has remained a bit player in the Android ecosystem. This year, Google is trying to get more app makers to target the platform with a particularly juicy hook: an Android TV dongle running Android P, offered exclusively to developers.

Google's I/O developer conference kicked off yesterday, bringing with it a raft of announcements of interest to programmers and users alike. While demonstrations like Google Assistant's natural call to a hair salon took centre stage, Google also slipped in a big scoop for developers: Linux app support will soon be added to Chrome OS.

Historically, developers interested in working on Chromebook hardware such as Google's line of Pixelbooks have had to boot Linux on their devices or use tools like...

Microsoft is aware software on its app store is often not as profitable as those on rivals, but today it’s helping developers out by slashing its own cut of the revenue.

During BUILD last year, Microsoft announced Windows 10 was on 500 million devices. Compared to iOS’ approximately one billion users, or Android’s two billion, it’s clear developers for Microsoft’s platform have far less potential customers.

Microsoft is attempting to make up for this shortfall, and improve the...

Amazon has announced new tools for Alexa which enable ‘Skills’ for the digital assistant to be monetised.

The fight for the smart home between Amazon and Google continues to heat up. Just yesterday, our sister publication IoT News reported that Google Assistant has tripled the number of devices it supports in four months.

Today, Amazon is announcing in-skill purchasing (ISP) and support for Amazon Pay in Alexa Skills....

The first day of Facebook’s annual F8 developer conference has concluded and we’ve rounded up all the most notable announcements from the gathering in San Jose, California.

This year’s show is the first since the world’s largest social network came under fire for allowing Cambridge Analytica and other companies unprecedented access to user data, which may have been used to influence democratic decisions.

In the wake of the fallout, Facebook made changes to its platform to better...

If the rumours of a 5G-enabled PSP (PlayStation Portable) are true, it would be a defining moment in proving the next-generation of cellular technology has unlocked the potential for the cloud streaming of apps and games to mobile devices.

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